"The
hundred-headed hydra, Life—
Grim monster!—has consumed them.
The friends of your youth and the olden days—
The past has long entombed them.
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note.
•
•
23
"You
will never again see the gracious flowers
That your young heart worshipped and cherished.
The storm-winds stripped them of their bloom;
They blossomed here, and perished.
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text .
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24
"To
wither, bruised and trodden down
Beneath Fate's cruel feet, is
The earthly lot, alas! my friend,
Of all that fair and sweet is."
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text .
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25
"And
who are you, colossal form,
That welcome thus the rover?
Where you go, may I follow? You seem to me
Like a dream of the days long over."
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text .
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26
The
woman, amused, replied with a smile,
"You are wrong. All the world knows me
To be proper, and moral, and daintily bred.
I am not what you suppose me.
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text .
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27
"I
am none of your little foreign lorettes,
Your Mam'selles cheap and pretty,
But Hammonia, the guardian deity
Of your famous Hamburg city.
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text .
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28
"You
are taken aback; you are terrified even,
O singer, once undaunted;
Would you still go with me? Come, decide,
And show your courage vaunted."
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text .
29
But
I laughed aloud and cried, " Lead on,
Most divine of lovely ladies!
Lead on, and I'll follow wherever you go,
Were it down to the gates of Hades!"
